What is Quarry Life Award

In more than 1000 quarries and pits worldwide HeidelbergCement is committed to managing biodiversity during and after extraction by promoting a high diversity of local flora and fauna.

The Quarry Life Award is a scientific and education contest proposed by HeidelbergCement. The competition takes place every two years and runs simultaneously at national and international levels. Its aim is to raise the awareness of the organic value of mining sites and to find new ways to further enhance it.

Over the past 3 editions of the Quarry Life Award, more than 1100 projects proposals were submitted, out of which 269 were selected to take part in the research period. These projects involved nearly a thousand researchers and reached out to thousands of stakeholders. In 3 editions, the national and international winners were granted over 750.000 EUR in prize money.

Quarry Life Award: 4th edition (2018)

HeidelbergCement invites researchers, students and citizens to submit biodiversity projects for its quarries and gravel pits around the world. Candidates are invited to develop a project idea in one of the participating quarries and to submit a ‘project proposal’ by 20 November 2017 on the website.

By 1 December 2017 the Quarry Life Award juries of each national contest will select the projects that can enter the competition. All contestants will then be invited to carry on their project idea and research between January and September 2018. All selected projects will compete simultaneously at national and international levels.

At the end of the research period, the contestants will have to submit a ‘final project report’ of no more than 10 pages. Reports can be written in national language and in English. However, the international jury will only consider the final project reports submitted in English for international awards. The deadline for final reports is 20 September 2018.

National and International Awards 2018

To allow a fairer competition for all participants, the edition 2018 has been split in two streams, each having 3 project categories.

In the research stream, the categories are:

Biodiversity management

Habitat and species research

Beyond quarry borders

In the community stream, the categories are:

Biodiversity & education

Connecting quarries and local communities

Student class project (for primary and secondary students)

At national level, winners will be granted prizes of 2 500EUR and 5 000EUR for best projects in the research stream and of 2 500EUR and 5 000EUR for best projects in the community stream.

At international level, the best projects in each of the 6 categories will be awarded with a prize of 10 000EUR each. The best project overall will receive no less than 30 000EUR.

Names of the national and international winners will be revealed in the autumn 2018.

What type of projects are we looking for?

In the research stream:
For the category ‘Biodiversity management:

rehabilitation concepts / methods / projects

projects increasing biodiversity during production

projects which create new living spaces / habitats for plants and animals on our sites

optimization of management and rehabilitation techniques

> Goal: to promote biodiversity in mining during and after extraction>

For the category ‘Habitat and species research:

mappings, surveys, scientific studies

> Goal: to increase the scientific knowledge about biodiversity in mining sites to improve management actions at quarry level

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About

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About the Quarry Life Award

The Quarry Life Award is an international research competition for the promotion and education about biodiversity in quarries. The forth edition of the competition, organized by HeidelbergCement, is currently in progress.